Four New York City Police officers struggled on the witness stand Tuesday to explain why they arrested Hawks player Thabo Sefolosha, a rocky start for the prosecution in the first day of testimony in Sefolosha’s trial in a Manhattan courtroom.
While they made a strong case that Sefolosha derogatorily called one officer a “midget” during the April confrontation outside a Manhattan nightclub, they did little to refute defense attorney Alex Spiro’s claim that Sefolosha was singled out because of his race.
“I think he saw a black man in a hoodie,” Spiro told the jury, referring to Officer JohnPaul Giacona, who first confronted Sefolosha in the early morning hours of April 8.
Giacona and three other officers who testified attempted to make the case that Sefolosha didn’t follow police orders to leave the street outside the 1OAK night club, after Indiana Pacers player Chris Copeland and two other people were stabbed there. Under cross-examination by Spiro however, the officers admitted they were prepared to allow Sefolosha and his party to enter a waiting car and leave the area.
It was only when Sefolosha stopped to address another person that officers made the move to arrest him, beginning a physical confrontation that ended with Sefolosha suffering a serious leg injury. Sefolosha missed the final five games of the NBA regular season and the playoffs with a broken right fibula and ligament damage. He said Tuesday that his leg still isn’t fully recovered.
Sefolosha was charged with obstructing government administration, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
Sefolosha has claimed the police caused his injuries and the possibility of a civil suit could hang over Tuesday’s testimony. Giacona insisted he had “no idea” how Sefolosha’s leg was broken. Giacona and other officers insisted that Sefolosha was hurt before he ever encountered the police and that he was walking normally in the minutes after the arrest.
Giacona was the first officer to confront Sefolosha on 17th Street in Chelsea. Giacona said Sefolosha didn’t comply with his order to move off the street and later said, “I’m just standing here. If I was a midget, I’d be mad, too.”
Giacona said he stands 5-feet-7. Sefolosha is officially listed by the Hawks as a foot taller at 6-7.
Both sides agree that Sefolosha eventually moved to the end of the block and car waiting on 10th Avenue. It was then that Sefolosha began speaking to the other unnamed person, who Spiro suggested was a homeless man looking for a handout. Spiro suggested that Sefolosha was moving to give the man some money, but police officers said they believed Sefolosha was “lunging” in the direction of Officer Daniel Dongvort.
“Officer Dongvort was in a vulnerable position,” Officer Richard Caster testified. “I didn’t know what the defendant’s intentions were. I think the defendant’s actions were irrational. He should have left by that point.”
Caster said he told Sefolosha he was under arrest and that Sefolosha refused to put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed. Caster, Dongvort and one or two other officers began to struggle with Sefolosha, eventually dragging him to the ground in an exchange caught on video that was shown to jurors Tuesday.
Spiro made the case in his opening statement that Giacona may have targeted Sefolosha because of his race. (Sefolosha is black, Giacona is white.) The attorney described the incident in more forceful terms on Tuesday.
“Thabo goes and turns and they pounce on him,” Spiro told the jury of three men and three women. “They pull him limb from limb. They shattered his leg. That’s what happened.
“Does that sound like good enough punishment?”
Assistant district attorney Jesse Matthews painted Sefolosha as an entitled athlete who “doesn’t think the rules apply to him.” Prosecutors had signaled before the trial began that they didn’t have a strong case when they offered Sefolosha a chance for dismissal, an offer he turned down in favor of going to trial.
Testimony in the case will continue Wednesday and could go on for the rest of this week.
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